**I like the guitar, which yes is reminiscent of "Waves" and "Am I Wrong" but the rest just does so little. It has little impact at all and is very weak for a lead single, although their quality has been declining over the past few years so it's not that surprising. Annoyed it ended up hanging around, but on the plus side it's not as bad as "Animals" at least.Last edited: 09.10.2014 02:31

**"V" feels a bit like writer's block. I think it shows in their release schedule. "It Won't Be Soon Before Long" was released 5 years after "Songs About Jane", then "Hands All Over" was nearly 3 and a half years after that one. "Overexposed" was released much quicker, but that was a band who needed to do something, after "Hands All Over" proved their least successful album and probably the only one that the average person would struggle to recall the name/tune to any of the singles from it. In Adam Levine's own words, they were 'hit drunk' after the success of "Moves Like Jagger", and capitalised it by focusing on making pop hits. It was a success. "Overexposed" housed their only UK #1 hit "Payphone", a song for which the demand was so high that a karaoke cover version hit the top 10 the week before it was released, and on the other side of the pond, a huge hit in "One More Night" that was the only thing that could stop "Gangnam Style" from hitting the top spot (subsequently a likely catalyst for Billboard updating their chart methodology soon after).

But with "V", what have they got to prove at this point? "Overexposed" put them back on top, but in doing so I feel took away the hunger and drive, and you can hear it in "Maps" especially. For a band that have excelled over the years through melodies that feel natural, instantly familiar & infectious, there's something missing in the mix. To put it more bluntly, what they're doing here just feels forced and awkward. The chorus feels like a brainstorming session of elaborating on the concept. "I wonder where you are?" followed by some fiddling around and then "I'm following the map that leads to you". Already a clunky sentiment, but in realisation of that, it's forced down in an irritating way in the hope that it'll stick.

What's probably most intriguing about "Maps" is the production style. I almost wonder if it wasn't initially considered for being a single, but they took advantage of how the summer was showing great reception for a handful of songs (particularly "Am I Wrong" in the US) and they rushed this one out, keeping back some songs that would be destined to do better given the same chance. Quite amusingly, apart from Voldemort, the top of the Australian charts just before this was released, was in fact the 2 major worldwide hits that this seems to be most cribbing on the back of. After that though, it falls into the Benny Blanco trap of not reeling back, and the chorus just feels unnaturally noisy, which is another nail to confine this to being particularly unpleasant to my ears. Maroon 5 need to think outside the box from where they stay, or they'll be slowly drifting, away. That's just how I feel. 1.6Last edited: 13.08.2015 19:56